INDIAN brand Mahindra has scored minor bragging rights over Chinese rival Great Wall with a slightly better result for its first passenger vehicle, the new XUV500, over its X240 SUV competitor in the latest round of Australasian NCAP crash tests.

The all-wheel-drive Mahindra scored 26 points out of a possible 37 in test results published today, while the Great Wall equivalent tested just over two years ago scored 25.48 points.

Both vehicles from the developing nations were awarded four stars by ANCAP.

ANCAP described this result as “creditable” for the Mahindra XUV500, which comes with standard side curtain airbags and ESC.

It scored 10 points in the offset crash test compared with 9.48 for the Great Wall X240.

ANCAP said the Mahindra test revealed poor protection from serious leg injury for the driver due to excessive rearward movement of the brake pedal.

Other medium and large SUVs to have scored four stars include the Range Rover Evoque (32.49), Jeep Grand Cherokee (29.95), Mitsubishi Pajero and Jeep Compass (29.21).

A number of family SUVs have scored five stars in recent years, including the Mercedes-Benz M-Class (36.34), Toyota Prado (35.11), Kia Sportage (35.1), Holden Captiva 7 (34.32), Kia Sorento (33.21) and Ford Territory (32.57).

The safety of motor vehicles from emerging markets has come under scrutiny, most recently when with the Mahindra Pik-Up utility received only a two-star rating in September last year.

However, Mahindra subsequently made improvements to the ute and scored three stars when re-tested in April this year.

As expected, three other new cars – the Mazda CX-5, Honda Civic Hatch and BMW 3 Series, which were all tested overseas – were awarded maximum five-star ratings in the latest ANCAP report released today.

The CX-5 tested in all-wheel-drive diesel form matched the rating of the CX-7 it replaced, thanks to availability of what was described as an impressive list of additional Safety Assist Technologies (SATs) including blind-spot monitoring (BSM) and lane-departure warning (LDW) as well as six airbags.

However, while the CX-5 scored 35.1 points as tested overseas, ANCAP chair Lauchlan McIntosh noted that BSM and LDW are only available as an option locally on the up-spec Grand Touring variant.

“We’ve already seen the CX-5 take the prize for best-selling compact SUV in Australia last month, and with Australian consumers’ demand for compact SUVs rising by 5.8 per cent last year, the CX-5’s five-star safety rating is likely to boost sales even further,” he said.

“While the CX-5 achieved a five-star rating, the fact that the additional SATs of BSM and LDW are only available as an optional extra on the Grand Touring variant at an additional cost of thousands of dollars is most disappointing.

“The highest levels of safety including SATs should be standard on all variants.”

The Honda Civic Hatch (36.03) and BMW 320d (36.76) were recognised for having daytime-running lights, making them more visible to other road users.

BMW launched the new 3 Series in Australia early this year while Honda will launch the Civic Hatch here later this month.

The 3 Series scored an impressive 15.76 out of 16 for the offset crash test while the Civic scored 15.03 and the CX-5 scored 14.1.